Attendance

That means there are already 175 days set aside for weekends, holidays, family visits and rewarding days out.

We believe every school day counts to give your child the greatest opportunity of attaining a good education and to support a happy and healthy future.

By your child attending school every day it will support your child with:

1

Achieving their best academically.

1

Developing and maintaining friendships.

1

Becoming an active member of the school community.

1

Building their confidence and self-esteem.

1

Establishing a good work ethic.

With 175 days already marked out as ‘non-school-days’, you should have an exceptional reason to withdraw your child from school.

The following are considered illegitimate reasons and will be recorded as unauthorised absence:

1

Trips to visit family/friends.

1

Your child’s birthday.

1

Cheaper family holidays.

1

Tickets to sports/culture events.

100% is recognised as an expected level of school attendance. If your child is out of school for 3 days each term, then their attendance is below 95% and they’re spending more days out of school than in it!

By working together I am sure we can maximise your child’s attendance at school.

School procedures for monitoring absence:

1

The government has issued laws about pupils’ attendance and lateness. The registers are checked regularly by the attendance administrator, and poor attendance is followed up. Currently each week we are visited by an educational welfare officer from the Local Authority. She will review the attendance of all the children and may call a meeting with families where the absence rate is poor or where children have incomplete weeks of schooling. In some cases this can result in a fine and in extreme cases may result in the Local Authority taking a family to court.

1

We expect parents to contact the school office by telephone every day that a child is away. Otherwise our school attendance administrator will text or phone to find out where the absent child is and this is extremely time consuming. There is a special line where you can leave messages about attendance and the messages will be picked up regularly.

1

Unauthorised absences, such as time off to go shopping or lateness without a good reason, will be recorded on your child’s attendance record.

1

Grovelands Community Primary School has an attendance target of 97%. The class in each phase ( Key Stage Two and Early/Key Stage One) with the highest attendance will be awarded an attendance trophy in every Monday whole school assembly and the attendance percentage for each class will be displayed in the school hall.

1

Leave of absence requests.

1

Pupils of school age must, by law, attend school regularly. Only a parent or carer may request leave of absence during term time. There is no entitlement to leave in term time and parents or carers should not expect leave of absence to be granted as a right.

1

Approval is discretionary and will only be given in exceptional circumstances. It is possible in certain circumstances that your child could be removed from the school register and parents/carers would need to reapply to the Local Authority for another school place on their return.

1

If parents/carers do wish to claim exceptional circumstances they must complete a leave of absence form which they can get from the school office or under the ‘form ‘section on this website. The completed form must be returned to the school at least strong>2 weeks before the date that the period of absence is to start, clearly stating the reasons for taking the child/ren out of school during term time. Parents/carers may be asked to show documentary evidence to support their request.

1

It is an offence under section 444 of the education act 1996. “If a child of compulsory school age who is a registered pupil at a school fails to attend regularly at the school, his parent is guilty of an offence.” If you take your child out of school without authorisation East Sussex County Council have the power to issue Fixed-Penalty Notices.